Puźniki is a village in the western part of Ukraine. The place where the first exhumations of the victims of the Volyn slaughter will take place in years. They will start in spring. When exactly? It will depend on the weather. Preparations for the mission are already underway, and on both sides.
Zbigniew Szczupaczyński is one of the last living witnesses of the massacre of Poles in the village of Puźniki at the pre -war Borderlands of the Commonwealth.
– Everything is burning here. I can already see how there are a few Banderites with these torches – recalls Zbigniew Szczupaczyński, a witness to the massacre in Puźniki.
He was 14 years old when on the night of February 12-13, 1945, the town attacked a branch of Ukrainian nationalists. – They say 70 people were murdered, but they say that. However, I seem to me and I was sure all the time, because I was in the burial that there are more people there – says Zbigniew Szczupaczyński.
What will exhumations in Puźniki look like?
It is in Puźniki that the first exhumations of the victims of the so -called Volyn slaughter will take place in years. They will be conducted by a 30-member team of Polish scientists, who will be accompanied by local specialists in accordance with Ukrainian law.
– On the Ukrainian side, I think that there will be several people as observers from this inter -ministerial commission, because this is how it took place in previous years, but it will simply be Polish exhumation – comments Maciej Dancewicz from the “Freedom and Democracy” Foundation.
The works are to start in the spring in a place where two years ago archaeologists located two mass graves.
– We plan to open these graves and conduct research. Then identify the victims so that they can rest with dignity in the graves probably in the same cemetery – reports prof. Andrzej Ossowski, head of the exhumation mission at Puźniki from the Pomeranian Medical University of Szczecin.
Scientists from the University of Szczecin gather DNA samples of Puźnian relatives who will help in identifying the corpses.
Archaeologist Olaf Popkiewicz, who managed similar exhumations in Volhynia 14 years ago, claims that despite the passage of 80 years, specialists will not have a problem with reconstruction of tragic events.
– UPA troops simply did not have ammunition, they were guerrilla troops typically, so due to the lack of ammunition, executions were carried out with hatch, so here in this case the bone damage to the skull will be very visible and every anthropologist will be able to identify the cause of death – indicates Olaf Popkiewicz , archaeologist, head of the exhumation mission in Volhynia in 2011.
Exhumation of the victims of the Volyn slaughter. There is no specific date yet, but the first assurances are fallingPaweł Szot/Fakty TVN
The work of the Polish-Ukrainian intergovernmental team is underway
The Polish-Ukrainian intergovernmental team works. Poland has submitted a total of 15 applications for permission for exhumations. Ukrainians want to conduct similar works in Poland.
– But it's not one for one or something for something. The idea is to launch this process, which was, unfortunately, in a pause – says Wasyl Bodnar, Ukrainian ambassador to Poland.
Volhynia and exhumations have been dividing Warsaw and Kyiv for years. They are used in internal political disputes on both sides of the border.
– If it is not politicians, but Ukrainian society, i.e. Ukrainians, normal Ukrainians, ordinary people would decide about it, then this matter would have been solved a long time ago – says Karolina Romanowska from the Association “Polish -Ukrainian reconciliation”.
Between 1943 and 1945, 60 to 150,000 Poles were killed at the pre -war Borderlands of the Republic of Poland at the hands of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army. Some Ukrainians undermine these numbers, emphasizing that UPA was an anti -Soviet and not anti -Polish organization.